UKC

My family are thinking of getting a cat but due to my mum's concerns about it bringing in mice etc. at night and waking them up climbing through their bedroom window it will have to be kept in at night. Is this cruel at all? We had a cat that used to be allowed out at night but my mum has only agreed to get a cat under the condition that it stays in at night. What do you think? Thanks

In reply to outtathaway:

Why would it be cruel? I prefer our cats to be in at night. As long as your cat gets plenty of fresh air and exercise during the day, it should be fine staying in at night.

In reply to outtathaway:

Always kept mine in at night and they were perfectly happy

In reply to outtathaway: Smudge would like access to outside 24/7 but we lock the cat flap when she returns for rations about 8pm. There's some meowing for a while then all is ok. No adverse effects to date.

In reply to outtathaway:

Most of our cats have stayed in at night - the current one spends much of the day outside and usually comes in just after dusk. We don't have a cat flap so this entails leaving an outer door open into a mouse air lock so she doesn't bring in the odd one that she does manage to catch. This failed on one occasion recently so that we only found the very alive mouse in Mrs Ratty's pyjamas when we went to bed. Lots of fun!

In reply to outtathaway:

Thanks everyone, I think we're going to get a kitten, found a couple of nice ones which we're going to view.

In reply to outtathaway:

Ohhh! Kittennnnns! I'll openly admit that Mr TC is my only barrier to becoming a cat hoarder.

In reply to Tall Clare:

Our cats go out at night.

No cat flap.

They love it.

Until it snows.

In reply to outtathaway:

Ultimately the cat will decide. I'd be happy for ours to stay indoors at night, but she always wakes us up at 3am meowing and scratching the furniture. So I prefer to throw her out just before going to bed, otherwise no peace!

In reply to coinneach:

We don't have a cat flap either. The local wildlife is grateful when we keep the cats in.

In reply to outtathaway:

There's no way I could sensibly keep my moggy in overnight. He gets bored and destructive if he can't go outside.

He would bring back live things every other night until I changed him to a BARF/Raw diet. Now I only get exclusively dead things about once a week.

I think he's taken the approach that originally I must have been crap at hunting when everything came out of a can and he bought me things to practise on . Now he gets chicken wings and a meaty paste, my hunting must have improved and he needn't bother!

In reply to outtathaway:

Keep the cat in all day and night, or put a lead on it at least so that it shits in your garden and not someone else's.

In reply to Tony the Blade:

Apologies about the errant apostrophe. Fat thumbs

In reply to outtathaway:

We keep both ours in at night - always have (though they sometimes forget this...)

No hassles at all, obviously have a litter box just in case - though ours never use it. Massively reduces the amount of hunting they do, as they're most active at dawn/dusk and safer for them too as they're not out on the roads when it's dark.

In reply to outtathaway:

Our cat is nocturnal - sleeps most of the day and goes out at night.

We shut her in the kitchen at night, although that's mainly due to her scratching when she wants attention at 4am! She can then come and go via the cat flap. Not a chance of her getting anywhere near our bedroom window.

Occasionally, we find a dead mouse in the kitchen or garden - we generally only see live ones when she drops them in the middle of the lounge while we're still up! I'm getting better at catching them. We've also had 1 live bird, which was more fun to catch and 1 dead chick inside and a couple of dead moles outside.

Friend of mine has trained his cats that the cat flap gets locked at a specific time at night - they know they have to be in by then, or stuck outside until morning.

In reply to outtathaway:

Our cats have always been kept in at night. There are far more animals for them to kill at night so is a good idea. In fact we make a point of keeping ours in until about 9am to give the wildlife a chance. Once they've been out until mid afternoon they're happy to come in and spend the rest of the day/night indoors.

From everyone who isn't a cat owner but has to put up with cleaning up cat shite from their gardens daily, please keep it in at night. At least that way the person who chose to have the cat is the one who is cleaning up after it. It also means my hens will be a lot happier because they won't be stalked every 5 minutes.

In reply to outtathaway:

Always kept my cats in at night. They were trained to come in to a whistle. I'd whistle their own little musical notes & they'd come running. I also fed them before going to bed so they were probably coming back for their dinner. I didn't like the idea of them out at night, worrying they'd be cold. There was also a spate of people going round with dogs at night with the only intention, to set the dog onto the cat to rip it up. If there seems to be a lot of chavs with 'status' dogs where you live, keep the cat in at night

In reply to outtathaway:

Good Luck trying to convince it to stay in at night if it doesn't want to! Our cat would go nuts if we kept it in. On occasions that it doesn't go out, we're inevitably woken up at about 3am by her scratching, yowling and pushing things off the mantle piece.......